15 Words Even the French Pronounce Wrong
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2025 7:13 am
Hi! Are you afraid of mispronouncing certain words in French? Do you find that French spelling is too complicated? Don't worry, many French speakers are of this opinion.
They too, we French speakers, sometimes make mistakes when we pronounce our own language. This is what we are going to see together today.
I invite you now, if you want to review everything we are going to study together, I invite you to download your free PDF sheet . It is the first link in the description. You click on the link and you get a well-designed PDF that includes everything we are going to see together today.
As you can see, we are going to look at a certain number of words – 15 to be precise – that many French speakers, many native speakers and myself among them, pronounce incorrectly, sometimes because there is confusion related to the way these words are written, sometimes because there is a grammar rule that is somewhat forgotten or sometimes because it is more practical to pronounce in another way.
So, be careful, in what we are going to see, not everyone agrees. There are certain words, for example, where I said to my wife Céline: "Hey, you and I pronounce that word the wrong way." She said to me: "But I've never heard anyone pronounce it like that." So, we can even ask ourselves - and it's an almost philosophical question - if laos whatsapp number data everyone pronounces it wrong, is it still a mistake? So, the idea here is not to say "you absolutely have to pronounce it like that," the idea is to look at a few words, a few terms where even the French have problems.
The first word that many French people mispronounce, it corresponds to this part here. You know, the hairs that we have above our eyes, most French people call them eyebrows when, according to theory, we should say "sourci ". The L here is supposed to be silent, the L at the end, like in "gentil", "outil" or "rifle". So, according to theory, we should say "sourci". I have never heard anyone call me "sourci", I always hear the French say "sourci". But apparently, the L is silent.
Second, it is an exotic fruit. You know that there is a kind of shell with big leaves on top. Personally, I call it a "pineapple", but it seems that once again the S is silent and that we should say an "anana". We would be in the same case as for the word "meal", "tas" or "mattress" with an S at the end, but which is silent. We do not say a "mattress", we do not say a "tass", we do not say a "repass". So, why should we say an "pineapple"?
Thirdly, it is a word that we use to talk about the habits of a society or the customs of a society. Many French people, again, including me, when we want to use this word, we say "mœursses". But it would seem, in theory, that the final S is not an S that we should pronounce, but it would be an S linked to the plural. So, we should say "les mœurs" and not "les mœursses". We could compare it to the word "sister". We don't say "des soeurss" but "des soeurs". We don't say "des peursses" but "des peuursses". So, we shouldn't say "des mœursses" but "des mœurs".
Fourth, it is a kitchen utensil that is used for cooking or it is an old means of heating. The pronunciation of this word is a bit of a debate in France since in some dictionaries, we will pronounce it as "poil" and in other cases, we will come across the word "poil". Personally, I say "poil", but we sometimes hear the word "poil". Here, I am not going to tell you the whole story, there have been different spelling changes, there have been spelling reforms that have created this confusion, but today, it would seem that the theory pushes us to speak of "poil" and not of "poil".
Fifth, we are in the same case as before between "stove" and "poil". This is a word that we use to talk about something soft, a sofa for example on which we can sit that is comfortable. We will say "it is soft" and we should say, according to the theory, "moist". Once again, I invite you to do your research on Google if you want to go further, but we have had spelling changes over time and these spelling changes have led to pronunciation changes. So, one time, we had to say "moist", another time we had to say "moist". It would seem that today we say "moist" but that the theory would encourage us to say "moist".
Sixth, when we want to talk about a challenge that seems impossible to overcome, the French can use a word that they pronounce "gageur." This word, in fact, should be pronounced as "gajure." Since it is a word that is rarely used, we tend to forget a French rule. In fact, the letter G can be pronounced in two ways. You can say "g" as in "garçon" or you can say "g" as in "nager." Garçon, G, nager, G. In both cases, it is a G. When the letter G is followed by an A, a U or an O, we pronounce "g" as in "garçon." It is GA, we pronounce "g." And when there is an E before it, when we have the G, an E and then A, O or U, we pronounce "j." So that is why we should pronounce "gajure" and not "gageur."
Seventh, a person who works with you, you can call him a colleague. In many words like "room, aisle, packaging", the two Ls are pronounced only as one L. But for the word colleague, some people double the L, that is to say instead of saying a colleague, they will say a "col-lègue", whereas the two Ls should only be pronounced as one. We therefore say colleague and not "col-lègue".
Eighth, the word rebellion. Rebellion, that's the correct pronunciation, but a lot of people say "re-bellion." "Re-bellion," I think because they mix, they mix with words from the same family like "a rebel" or "to rebel." So they say the "re" sound and for the word "rebellion," they say "re" as well. So don't say - if you have to use this word which is not a super used word - don't say "re-bellion" but "re-bellion."
Ninth, it is also an accent error here, when we want to talk about the opposite of something, we say "inversement". That is the correct way to pronounce it, but some people say "inversement". "Inversément" is wrong, "inversement" is correct.
Tenth, when we want to talk about the science of wine, the study of wine, many French people, including me, say "oenology". The sound O and E, we pronounce it E. So, we say that it is oenology. It would seem that this O plus E should be pronounced "é" and that we should therefore say "énologie" or "ésophage" and not "eunologie" and "eusophage".
They too, we French speakers, sometimes make mistakes when we pronounce our own language. This is what we are going to see together today.
I invite you now, if you want to review everything we are going to study together, I invite you to download your free PDF sheet . It is the first link in the description. You click on the link and you get a well-designed PDF that includes everything we are going to see together today.
As you can see, we are going to look at a certain number of words – 15 to be precise – that many French speakers, many native speakers and myself among them, pronounce incorrectly, sometimes because there is confusion related to the way these words are written, sometimes because there is a grammar rule that is somewhat forgotten or sometimes because it is more practical to pronounce in another way.
So, be careful, in what we are going to see, not everyone agrees. There are certain words, for example, where I said to my wife Céline: "Hey, you and I pronounce that word the wrong way." She said to me: "But I've never heard anyone pronounce it like that." So, we can even ask ourselves - and it's an almost philosophical question - if laos whatsapp number data everyone pronounces it wrong, is it still a mistake? So, the idea here is not to say "you absolutely have to pronounce it like that," the idea is to look at a few words, a few terms where even the French have problems.
The first word that many French people mispronounce, it corresponds to this part here. You know, the hairs that we have above our eyes, most French people call them eyebrows when, according to theory, we should say "sourci ". The L here is supposed to be silent, the L at the end, like in "gentil", "outil" or "rifle". So, according to theory, we should say "sourci". I have never heard anyone call me "sourci", I always hear the French say "sourci". But apparently, the L is silent.
Second, it is an exotic fruit. You know that there is a kind of shell with big leaves on top. Personally, I call it a "pineapple", but it seems that once again the S is silent and that we should say an "anana". We would be in the same case as for the word "meal", "tas" or "mattress" with an S at the end, but which is silent. We do not say a "mattress", we do not say a "tass", we do not say a "repass". So, why should we say an "pineapple"?
Thirdly, it is a word that we use to talk about the habits of a society or the customs of a society. Many French people, again, including me, when we want to use this word, we say "mœursses". But it would seem, in theory, that the final S is not an S that we should pronounce, but it would be an S linked to the plural. So, we should say "les mœurs" and not "les mœursses". We could compare it to the word "sister". We don't say "des soeurss" but "des soeurs". We don't say "des peursses" but "des peuursses". So, we shouldn't say "des mœursses" but "des mœurs".
Fourth, it is a kitchen utensil that is used for cooking or it is an old means of heating. The pronunciation of this word is a bit of a debate in France since in some dictionaries, we will pronounce it as "poil" and in other cases, we will come across the word "poil". Personally, I say "poil", but we sometimes hear the word "poil". Here, I am not going to tell you the whole story, there have been different spelling changes, there have been spelling reforms that have created this confusion, but today, it would seem that the theory pushes us to speak of "poil" and not of "poil".
Fifth, we are in the same case as before between "stove" and "poil". This is a word that we use to talk about something soft, a sofa for example on which we can sit that is comfortable. We will say "it is soft" and we should say, according to the theory, "moist". Once again, I invite you to do your research on Google if you want to go further, but we have had spelling changes over time and these spelling changes have led to pronunciation changes. So, one time, we had to say "moist", another time we had to say "moist". It would seem that today we say "moist" but that the theory would encourage us to say "moist".
Sixth, when we want to talk about a challenge that seems impossible to overcome, the French can use a word that they pronounce "gageur." This word, in fact, should be pronounced as "gajure." Since it is a word that is rarely used, we tend to forget a French rule. In fact, the letter G can be pronounced in two ways. You can say "g" as in "garçon" or you can say "g" as in "nager." Garçon, G, nager, G. In both cases, it is a G. When the letter G is followed by an A, a U or an O, we pronounce "g" as in "garçon." It is GA, we pronounce "g." And when there is an E before it, when we have the G, an E and then A, O or U, we pronounce "j." So that is why we should pronounce "gajure" and not "gageur."
Seventh, a person who works with you, you can call him a colleague. In many words like "room, aisle, packaging", the two Ls are pronounced only as one L. But for the word colleague, some people double the L, that is to say instead of saying a colleague, they will say a "col-lègue", whereas the two Ls should only be pronounced as one. We therefore say colleague and not "col-lègue".
Eighth, the word rebellion. Rebellion, that's the correct pronunciation, but a lot of people say "re-bellion." "Re-bellion," I think because they mix, they mix with words from the same family like "a rebel" or "to rebel." So they say the "re" sound and for the word "rebellion," they say "re" as well. So don't say - if you have to use this word which is not a super used word - don't say "re-bellion" but "re-bellion."
Ninth, it is also an accent error here, when we want to talk about the opposite of something, we say "inversement". That is the correct way to pronounce it, but some people say "inversement". "Inversément" is wrong, "inversement" is correct.
Tenth, when we want to talk about the science of wine, the study of wine, many French people, including me, say "oenology". The sound O and E, we pronounce it E. So, we say that it is oenology. It would seem that this O plus E should be pronounced "é" and that we should therefore say "énologie" or "ésophage" and not "eunologie" and "eusophage".